Graphic design disciplines emphasize visual communication and presentation methods. A graphic designer may use typography, visual arts, data visualization, and page layout techniques to convey information. Symbols, images and/or words can be combined to create a visual presentation of ideas. Composition of different visual components is an important aspect of graphic design, not least because the number of components to choose from, and the ways in which they can be combined, are each extremely large. Composition and other design efforts can enhance readability, aid comprehension, characterize features persuasively, and facilitate recall, for example.
Magazines, web pages, advertisements in various media, and product packaging are common examples of graphic design efforts. For example, graphic design can be used to create a product package which includes a vendor logo, descriptive text, and design elements such as shapes and colors. Graphic design efforts may be seen in a wide variety of items, from road signs to technical drawings, from textbooks and reference manuals to film credits and theatrical sets, to name just a few examples. In scientific journals and news reports, textual content reciting facts and hypotheses may be accompanied by helpful graphics. Newspapers, magazines, blogs, and other media use graphic design results to inform and entertain, both in still images and in video or film clips. On the web, interactive tools are also used to convey information in words and images, by integrating visual communication skills with human-computer interaction techniques.